(no subject)
Oct. 10th, 2003 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
On days when I give an exam (like today) I feel like the guy who plays the cymbals in an orchestra. From 9-5 (yes, it's a freaky long exam) my life consists of sitting here at the front of class watching the clock, waiting for those few all-important measures where it's my time to shine:
*CRASH!* -- "One hour remaining"
...
*CRASH!* -- "30 minutes remaining"
etc.
The cymbal player analogy breaks down in between sections of the exam, though. Then I'm more like the Cymbal player who also moonlights as the orchestra's IT guy, running from machine to machine, gathering grading info and making sure that I've got a record of everyone's score before blasting away the systems in preparation for the next phase.
Then with the waiting again.
It doesn't help that the tool I wrote for recording grades in Lizbeth's class turned out to be severely broken last night (the night before the last day of the grading period) and kept me up 'till 2am last night. It was all due to a stupid, stupid SQL error on my part, too. The real pisser, though, is that the reason it took so long wasn't that it was a hard thing to fix, but because I hadn't slept enough the entire week preceeding and so was completely braindead.
And so here I sit, about to call the 5-minute warning on the last section of this exam running on only a few hours sleep. My brain is so addled that I've taken to writing down the times at which I should say something in a little text document. That way I don't have to actually try and calculate what time X - 45 minutes is (which I already got wrong once today), I just have to look at the clock, look at my text document and see if anything matches. _That_ is how fried my brain is right now.
*sigh*
On a happier note, I'm working Austin in a couple of weeks, which I've heard is a pretty cool town (for Texas, at least).
*CRASH!* -- "One hour remaining"
...
*CRASH!* -- "30 minutes remaining"
etc.
The cymbal player analogy breaks down in between sections of the exam, though. Then I'm more like the Cymbal player who also moonlights as the orchestra's IT guy, running from machine to machine, gathering grading info and making sure that I've got a record of everyone's score before blasting away the systems in preparation for the next phase.
Then with the waiting again.
It doesn't help that the tool I wrote for recording grades in Lizbeth's class turned out to be severely broken last night (the night before the last day of the grading period) and kept me up 'till 2am last night. It was all due to a stupid, stupid SQL error on my part, too. The real pisser, though, is that the reason it took so long wasn't that it was a hard thing to fix, but because I hadn't slept enough the entire week preceeding and so was completely braindead.
And so here I sit, about to call the 5-minute warning on the last section of this exam running on only a few hours sleep. My brain is so addled that I've taken to writing down the times at which I should say something in a little text document. That way I don't have to actually try and calculate what time X - 45 minutes is (which I already got wrong once today), I just have to look at the clock, look at my text document and see if anything matches. _That_ is how fried my brain is right now.
*sigh*
On a happier note, I'm working Austin in a couple of weeks, which I've heard is a pretty cool town (for Texas, at least).
no subject
Date: 2003-10-11 12:40 am (UTC)you MUST go to the record store.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-11 06:35 am (UTC)What's it called?
no subject
Date: 2003-10-11 06:38 pm (UTC)if you went to Austin and asked someone "can you tell me where the record store is?" they would probably point you there anyhow.
there are some really cool vegetarian places and little cafes and the like too. the park, where the youth hostel is located, is really pretty. i kept seeing swallow tail butterflies everywhere, but then i was there in August.
Austin, despite the fact that it's in texas, is one of the cities in this world that i'd really enjoy living in.
have a great time. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-11 06:39 pm (UTC)actually, this "oh i made a typo" post is mostly just and excuse for me to say word up to listening to Flogging Molly.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-11 07:06 pm (UTC)Their "Swagger" album and "Left and Leaving" by The Weakerthans is almost all I've listened to for a month.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-11 02:41 am (UTC)*Emi restrains from any number of other comments she could make about.. um.. drenched cats*